What does the new environmental marketing code actually change?
A new AANA Environmental Claims Code (the Code) came into effect on 1 March 2025 and applies to all advertising and marketing across all platforms. The Code has been adopted by the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) as part of advertising and marketing self-regulation. Its objective is to ensure that advertisers and marketers apply rigorous standards when making environmental claims and to increase public trust and confidence in communications of those claims.
While this advertising industry self-regulatory system sits entirely outside the Australian Consumer Law and enforcement by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), this article explores how this new AANA Code builds on existing ACCC guidance on environmental marketing and contains some noteworthy changes businesses should be aware of with respect to greenwashing.
What is the AANA?
The AANA is the leading marketing industry body in Australia. It develops, reviews and updates advertising codes to ensure they reflect the evolving landscape of advertising practices in line with community expectations. Ad Standards is an industry self-regulatory body, created and funded through levies on members of the AANA. The primary role of Ad Standards is to regulate market compliance with the AANA’s various Codes of Conduct, including the Food & Beverages Advertising Code as well as the recently updated Environmental Claims Code.
The AANA together with Ad Standards oversees Australia’s advertising self-regulation system.
It is worth noting that Ad Standards is not a government body. Its findings are not legally binding and the worst outcome from ongoing breach of the Codes of conduct would be expulsion of a member from the AANA. Notwithstanding this lack of enforcement power and the fact that the majority of advertisers would not be AANA members, Ad Standards does claim a high compliance rate due to many media platforms being members, as well as the risk of an adverse Ad Standards finding leading to unwanted regulatory attention and reputational damage.
Does the new Environmental Code add any new thresholds/triggers for advertisers?
As with the ACCC’s current campaign against greenwashing under the misleading and de deceptive prohibitions (as reflected in the ACCC actions against GLAD bags “ocean plastic” claims), Ad Standards has also expressed concern and provided specific guidance over environmental benefit claims of goods and services. This concern is reflected in the new Environmental Claims Code.
Relevantly, the new Code:
- Broadens specifically regulated conduct to capture:
- Images and audio that contain environmental claims
- Vague or broad environmental claims
- Claims about entire industries (not just products/services)
- Includes a new focus on future claims:
- Imposes a clear obligation to ensure that environmental claims about future actions or targets are realistic and achievable
Implementation of concerns about inferences of future environmental benefits can be seen in the recent Ad Standards determination against Australian Gas Networks for its advertising on MasterChef. The claim “at AGN we’re working towards a future where renewable gas could one day be used in your kitchen” was found to breach the new Environmental Claims Code by inferring that this future where renewable gas would be available in home kitchens is a lot sooner than the projected reality of 2050.
Does new AANA Code go beyond existing ACCC guidance in any way?
In other words: does the new AANA Cde potentially present a new standard for best industry practice beyond that specified by Australia’s consumer watchdog?
The answer is “no, but”. The new Environmental Code essentially reinforces existing ACCC guidance with only a few deviations/additions. The ACCC’s eight principles for trustworthy environmental claims are:
- Make accurate and truthful claims.
- Have evidence to back up your claims.
- Do not hide or omit important information.
- Explain any conditions or qualifications on your claims.
- Avoid broad and unqualified claims.
- Use clear and easy-to-understand language.
- Visual elements should not give the wrong impression.
- Be direct and open about your sustainability transition.
The key difference is that the new Code does add a rule in relation to ”future” claims that was only briefly dealt with under the ACCC guidance. Specifically, Principle 8 of the ACCC guidance states that businesses must be direct and open about their sustainability transition and should be cautious about making aspirational claims about future environmental objectives, unless you have developed clear and actionable plans detailing how you will achieve those objectives.
Rule 5 in the Code goes beyond the above ACCC Principle, which states that Environmental Claims in Advertising about future environmental objectives must be based on reasonable grounds at the time the claim is made.
This rule provides guidance (where relevant) regarding:
- accepted methodologies on which goals should be based (for example, the Science Based Targets Initiative), resources or technologies that are effective and available now (or the advertiser has a reasonable basis to consider they will be available to the advertiser in the near future);
- updates that should be made available to the public about performance against the goals, including whether the advertiser is on track to achieve them or any setbacks; and
- whether the advertiser should regularly revise the goals and any related Environmental Claims where it becomes apparent the advertiser will not meet them.
The Code also attempts to broaden the scope of what is considered unclear and vague language to include claims such as “environmentally friendly,” “eco friendly”, “eco safe”, “green”, “go green”, “choose green”, “sustainable,” or any other terms implying that a product or an activity has no impact, or only a positive impact, on the environment.
Can “one word” environmental claims still be made under the new Code?
The introduction of the new Environmental Claims Code raises the question of whether it will change previous approaches taken by Ad Standards. Given the Code’s new rule identifying vague, broad or non-specific claims (expressly referencing the single-word claim “sustainable”) as being misleading without appropriate qualification, it is interesting to consider whether the outcomes of past Ad Standards reviews of such claims would change under the new Code.
For example, in October 2021, Ad Standards reviewed the claims of “sustainable” and “clean” made on various advertisements by a fast food franchise to be fully substantiated, and by extension compliant with the Environmental Claims Code as it then stood.
However, such claims are clear examples which the new Code now describes as “implying that a product or an activity has no impact—or only a positive impact—on the environment. Such claims may be misleading unless appropriately qualified, a high standard of proof is available, or the claim is linked to a specific properly substantiated environmental attribute that clearly limits the scope of the claim to such attribute.”
Even though a “sustainable” or “clean” claim in October 2021 was simply assessed as to whether the product met the expectations of the reasonable consumer, one-word claims may now be held to a higher standard under the new Code. One-word claims without any specific substantiation run a high risk of breaching the new Code if they:
- are not accompanied by clear, contextual information;
- exaggerate or misrepresent the actual environmental benefit;
- could imply a total environmental benefit where only a partial or limited one exists; or
- fail to make qualifications or limitations clear (e.g. “eco”, but only in packaging and not product composition).
Conclusion
The main point businesses should take away from the Code is that it essentially reinforces the previously published ACCC guidelines with some broadening of the scope to include specific examples and instances of environmental claims. While the new Code has focus and detail beyond the ACCC guidance, enforcement action by either Ad Standards or the ACCC can be avoided simply by stating why your product is “clean” or “sustainable”. In other words, narrow and specify what the reasonable consumer will understand from your marketing and prove that understanding to be true.
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